We should have pushed Poland to sell their SU27s to Ukraine. Giving them our F16s which is going to happen is just escalating this war which is swiftly becoming a proxy war between us and Russia, soon to be China. It’s going to escalate into something more and out people are going to end up dying.
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President Zelenskyy of Ukraine is Jewish and members of his family were executed by Nazis in WWII.
To say tha he or his administration has any Nazi sympathies is totally insane.
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy was born to Jewish parents on 25 January 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His father, Oleksandr Zelenskyy, is a professor and computer scientist and the head of the Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware at the Kryvyi Rih State University of Economics and Technology; his mother, Rymma Zelenska, used to work as an engineer. His grandfather, Semyon (Simon) Ivanovych Zelenskyy, served as an infantryman, reaching the rank of colonel in the Red Army (in the 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division) during World War II. Semyon’s father and three brothers were killed in the Holocaust. In March 2022, Zelenskyy said that his great-grandparents had been killed after German troops burned their home to the ground during a massacre.
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Maybe AvWeb should investigate sources for such articles and comments before printing since there is so much “fake news” and comments these days. Now not only do we have to be wary of troll propaganda but now it is coming from computer generated software not just folks trying to influence national and international politics and policies. Beware of everything you see and hear now days.
From what we have seen so far, the aerial theater in and around Ukraine is highly dangerous to essentially anything flying due to the plethora of manpads and S 300, S 400, and maybe S 500 AA missiles being used, some on both sides. What makes anyone think that F 16s would be much less vulnerable. Nearly the same vulnerability argument against A 10s would be in effect for F 16s. Unmanned cruise missiles, lots of cruise missiles are what are needed. Shoot some down - so what as compared with a fighter jet and pilot.
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Was that the position Yours compatriots and even the then government share in WWII, even before the attack to Pearl Harbor? Poor generation, the actual one!
Does that mean the only time air assets will be used are over areas that are normally defended by folks riding camels or Toyota pickups mounted with a .50 Cal ?
As for waste of money, I agree, the human race simply hasn’t figured out in this day and age how to get along. However, I suspect the WW2 effort was worth the money since it ended up the good guys winning and the rest of us learning English as our second language.
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Moldova. The conqueror always needs new lands to conqueror. The conqueror is always a man of peace - he prefers to marches in unopposed.
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sigh. It’s 2023. Editing still eludes us.
Well said, Hans.
While Russia has lots of S 300s and more, I doubt they’re more skilled at these weapons’ employment than they’ve shown with other weapons so far (see for example, tanks). In any case, aircraft can be and are equipped with jamming pods and flares, and the US has already sent a shipment of High Speed Anti-Radar Missiles (HARM) to Ukraine. There are no sanctuaries, and nothing in war is low-risk. But these aircraft would make a difference.
Good question.
Perhaps they haven’t joined because of requirements set forth by NATO for membership. I should hope after this brave and solid defense of their country, they would be invited. Frankly, you’d have to go back to WW2 to see an example of a country’s will to survive under some trying conditions. At nearly 76 I’d learn the F-16 and help out. Manpads be damned, I’ve been there before on a mission far less existential than this one.
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I understand! Even at 80 years old, I have the urge to volunteer ?as a ground pounder. Article 5 of the Washington Treaty requires all NATO members to assist if one is attacked. With that in mind, my hope is that Ukraine becomes a member of NATO as soon as possible to force Russia to stop the fighting and withdraw its forces. In the meantime, …pass the ammunition.
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Any country operating F-16’s would need to get US permission to move them from their inventory.
And handing over aircraft, especially high performance aircraft, takes a hell of a lot more than passing the “keys” over.
Training, logistics, infrastructure, spare parts, fuel, oil… the list is HUGE. So stop with the quick fix attitudes already.
Roger that, “Pass the F-16’s”
Neocon Warmongers mystify me just as much. I have five good reasons that the US needs to steer clear of Ukraine: Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the corrupt Biden family money laundering scam in Ukraine.
Some people are immune to history’s lessons. It’s not like Russia’s aggression just sprang up overnight like dandelions; the Russian encroachment into Ukraine followed the same playbook as previous incursions into Moldova (Transnistria) and Georgia (Ossetia). In 1991 every oblast in Ukraine, including the ones now under Russian occupation, voted for independence. I find the attitude of “freedom and independence for me but not for thee” among Americans to be quite hypocritical. The cost of the aid we’re supplying to Ukraine is virtually a rounding error compared to the huge sums our government spends on frivolous and dubious projects.
Thank you!
Russia withdraw its forces and return the Ukrainian children kidnapped and sent to Russia (this criminal act really makes my blood boil).
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With you Jack W: Evidence of Russia’s War Crimes and Other Atrocities in Ukraine: Recent Reporting on Child Relocations
FEBRUARY 14, 2023
With you Jack W:
Evidence of Russia’s War Crimes and Other Atrocities in Ukraine: Recent Reporting on Child Relocations
FEBRUARY 14, 2023
The first unit rolling off the line in April 2022 and now – 14 months later – they’re doing taxi testing?? Hey, guys, hurry up … the war will be over before you get these things into the hands of the customer! Geesh. Oh well, they’re probably trying to figure out how to make the KC-46A work right?
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December 1962: Lockheed signs contract to build six SR-71 aircraft
October 1964: SR-71 prototype (#61-7950) delivered to Palmdale
March 1968: First SR-71 (#61-7976) operational mission flown from Kadena AB over Vietnam
Depending how measured… SR-71 was 5 1/2 years from contract to first operational mission.
Sorry but this thing looks like a “parts bin” special. And what would be wrong with just producing new TA-4J’s? Great advanced trainer that looks like a proper jet aircraft.
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A guess you have no idea what it would take rebuild and reopen a aircraft production plant that closed in 1979
Well … I worked for an aerospace company who turned an abandoned auto plant into a huge classified facility and cranked out a massively large airplane in the same period while managing a large number of co and sub vendors. And they used the very same “acquisition” system. Here, a once proud company – Boeing – has now fallen on its proverbial sword … on many programs. Oh well … maybe in two years they’ll fly it ?
Quite an adequate comment.??
To everyone who thinks it should be a simple matter to take some off-the-shelf aircraft designs and technologies and produce a new supersonic trainer, I offer the following: In 2020, the Air Force mandated that companies must design future aircraft to fit a wider range of recruitable Americans, rather than past standards based on a 1967 survey of male pilots that considered their standing and sitting heights and reach. The 2020 requirement is to safely eject persons weighing between 103 lbs to 245 lbs, with varying cgs, from zero altitude to 40,000+ feet and zero airspeed to 600 knots IAS. A friend of mine ejected from an F-4 at 500+ knots, and broke all the major bones in both arms and both legs. He took years to recover, but he lived. This seat is required to handle that situation without injury. There are many stories of aircrew who suffered spinal damage from ejection seats and even from ejection seat trainers. The seat is only one of the requirements that previous trainer aircraft have not had to deal with. As long as unobtanium remains one of the services’ requirements, we can expect “once proud” aerospace companies to experience development and testing delays.